ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: To evaluate prospectively the correlation of scar-formations after vacuum-assisted biopsy with different systems and needle-sizes and interventional bleeding/post-interventional hematoma. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Between 01/2008 and 12/2009, 479 patients underwent vacuum-assisted biopsy under stereotactic-guidance, using the Mammotome(®)-system with 11/8-gauge and ATEC(®)-system with 12/9-gauge, whereas in 178 cases with representative benign histology no surgical-biopsy after vacuum-assisted biopsy was performed and at least a 2-plane-follow-up-mammogram after 6 month post-vacuum-assisted biopsy was available. Bleeding during intervention, hematoma post-intervention and scar-tissue was scored as minimal and moderate/severe. Statistical analysis included Chi-Square-trend-test, p-value <0.05 was considered to be significant. RESULTS: Significantly more bleedings and post-interventional hematomas for 8-gauge-Mammotome(®)-system vs. 11-gauge-Mammotome(®)-system (41.9% vs. 8.4%, p<0.001/35.5% vs. 16.7%, p=0.029), no significant-differences for the ATEC(®)-systems 9-gauge vs. 12-gauge (26.9% vs. 29.7%, p=0.799/42.3% vs. 43.2%, p=0.596). 11-gauge-Mammotome(®)-system vs. ATEC(®)-12-gauge-system revealed significantly less bleedings/hematomas (8.4% vs. 29.7%, p=0.015/16.7% vs. 43.2%, p=0.001), no significant differences for the large-systems (p=0.135/p=0.352). Follow-up of Mammotome(®)-11/8-gauge-system system has shown 13.1/16.1% minimal scar-formation and 1.2/3.2% moderate/severe scars, whereas ATEC(®)-12/9-gauge-system has shown 10.8/3.8% minimal scar-formation and 0/11.5% moderate/severe scars, no significant differences. No significant difference was found when comparing Mammotome(®)-11/8-g-systems vs. ATEC(®)-12/9-g-systems (p=0.609/p=0.823). There was also no correlation between risk of scar-formation after occurrence of bleeding or hematoma with any examined VAB-system or any needle size in this study (p=0.800). CONCLUSION: Using larger needle-sizes significantly (Mammotome(®))/not significant for ATEC(®)) more interventional bleedings and post-interventional hematomas were detected, only a tendency concerning scar-formation.